Relationships and Community on Stubbornness

Quote

Author

Augustine of Hippo

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 32:5, 2 Chronicles 7:14, Hebrews 10:26, Romans 6:1-2, Isaiah 1:18, James 4:17, Proverbs 28:13

It is human to err, it is devilish to remain willfully in error.

illustration

I Would Take Half

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 6:2, Romans 12:21, Micah 6:8, Isaiah 1:17, Proverbs 31:8-9, Psalm 82:3-4

The British romantic poet Lord Byron (George Gordon) grew up with the disability of clubfoot, which kept him from engaging in many of the activities and joys of childhood. He was nevertheless, a perso...

liturgy

Almighty God, too often we settle for

Author

Laura B. Murray

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 12:18, Psalm 51:10, Isaiah 1:17, James 2:13, Micah 6:8, Matthew 5:6

Almighty God, too often we settle for brokenness in our lives. Rather than offering forgiveness, we hold onto offense. Rather than pursuing justice, we turn away . Rather than offering mercy, we c...

illustration

R.C. Sproul & The Social Pariah

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 6:14-15, Matthew 18:21-35, Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:13, John 8:10-11, Psalm 103:12, Isaiah 1:18

The pastor R.C. Sproul was studying in the Netherlands in the last 1960s and randomly struck up a conversation with a Dutch woman. The conversation was a common, enjoyable interaction, but when it was...

Quote

Author

Julian of Norwich

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 37:23-24, Hebrews 4:15-16, Isaiah 1:18, Micah 7:18-19, Romans 8:38-39

Our courteous Lord does not want his servants to despair because they fall often and grievously; for our falling does not hinder him in loving us.

Quote

Author

Christine Langley-Obaugh

Keywords

Scripture

Jeremiah 31:19, Colossians 3:13, Matthew 5:23-24, Isaiah 1:18, Proverbs 28:13, James 5:16

We repeat what we don’t repair.

liturgy

Kind and loving God, forgive us for our

Author

Austin D. Hill

Keywords

Scripture

Micah 6:8, Isaiah 1:18, James 4:8, Proverbs 3:5-6, 1 John 1:9, Revelation 3:15-16

Kind and loving God, forgive us for our lack of faith. You deserve our reverence, obedience, and faith, but we give You so much less. Because of our lukewarm devotion, we miss out on so much that You ...

liturgy

Eternal God, our judge and redeemer, we

Author

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 1:9, Psalm 32:5, Isaiah 1:18, Psalm 51:1-2, Micah 7:18-19, Ephesians 1:7, 2 Chronicles 7:14

Eternal God, our judge and redeemer, we confess that we have tried to hide from You, for we have done wrong. We have lived for ourselves, and apart from You. We have turned from our neighbors and refu...

liturgy

Adapted from a variety of scriptures

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 1:18, Joel 2:13, Psalm 103:8, 1 John 1:9, Psalm 51:17, James 4:10, James 4:10

Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be like wool. Rend your heart, and not...

illustration

Pious Irrelevancies and Sanctimonious Trivialities

Author

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 4:18-19, Matthew 23:23, Galatians 3:28, Jeremiah 22:3, Amos 5:24, Isaiah 1:17

In his now famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail , Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. offers a scathing rebuke of his white clergy colleagues, whose inaction caused him much frustration: I have heard numero...

liturgy

God, the fact that we feel

Author

Mark D. Roberts

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 24:1, Genesis 1:26, James 1:27, Matthew 25:40, Amos 5:24, Isaiah 1:17

God, the fact that we feel uncomfortable is evidence that we perceive the injustices in our world. We don’t ask you to help us hear the cries of injustice, but rather to give us courage to act against...

liturgy

Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 51:1-2, Isaiah 1:18, Acts 3:19, 1 John 1:9, Romans 3:23-24, Ephesians 1:7, Micah 7:18-19

Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of all things, Judge of all men: We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we, from time to time, most grievously have comm...

Quote

Author

Albert Lutuli

Keywords

Scripture

John 13:34-35, Isaiah 1:17, Proverbs 31:8-9, Acts 17:26, Micah 6:8, James 2:1, Galatians 3:28

To remain neutral in a situation where the laws of the land virtually criticized God for having created men of color was the sort of thing I could not, as a Christian, tolerate.

illustration

The United States is Like Samaria

Author

Phillip Yancey

Keywords

Scripture

Jeremiah 29:4-7 , 2 Kings 17:24-33, Isaiah 1:18-20, John 4:4-26, Acts 8:4-8, 14-17, Psalm 46:1-2

The United States retains a basic respect for religion though it may be following European trends: surveys show a steady rise in the “nones” (now one-third of those under the age of thirty), that is, ...

Quote

Author

Cornel West

Keywords

Scripture

James 3:17-18, 1 Timothy 3:2-3, John 8:32, Jeremiah 23:5, Isaiah 1:17, Proverbs 29:4, Exodus 18:21

If your success is defined as being well adjusted to injustice and well adapted to indifference, then we don’t want successful leaders. We want great leaders who love the people enough and respect the...

illustration

Justice is Personal

Author

Andy Crouch

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 25:40, Leviticus 19:15, Galatians 3:28, James 2:8-9, Amos 5:24, Micah 6:8, Isaiah 1:17

When did the topic of justice become important to you?” Gideon Strauss posed that question to two dozen people crammed into our living room one fall evening in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Some of us wer...

illustration

An Honor to Die for this Child

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 13:3, Philippians 2:3-4, Romans 12:21, Isaiah 1:17, Proverbs 31:8-9, Matthew 25:40, John 15:13

During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Corrie ten Boom tried to enlist a pastor to help hide Jews. Showing him a Jewish baby in need of rescue, the pastor said “No. Definitely not. We could lo...

illustration

The Most Private is Often What Resonates the Strongest

Author

Carl Rogers

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 3:10, 2 Corinthians 7:10, Isaiah 1:18, 2 Corinthians 4:2

The pyschologist Carl Rogers, a person who would know quite well the interior lives of others, has this to say of our inmost thoughts: I have most invariably found that the very feeling which has see...

illustration

Rosa Parks & Helpful Comparisons

Author

Richella J. Parham

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 12:2, Luke 4:18-19, Ecclesiastes 3:7-8, Amos 5:24, Proverbs 31:8-9, Micah 6:8, Isaiah 1:17

Very often, comparison to an ideal is a helpful practice, not a harmful one. Helpful comparisons are those that place a normal or ideal condition on one side of a scale and a real-life condition on th...

liturgy

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing

Keywords

Scripture

Titus 3:5, Micah 7:18-19, Joel 2:12-13, Ephesians 1:7, 2 Chronicles 7:14, 1 John 1:9, Isaiah 1:18

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and ackno...

liturgy

Litany of Penitence

Scripture

2 Chronicles 7:14, Luke 19:1-10, Luke 15:11-32, Isaiah 1:18, James 5:16

The Celebrant and People together, all kneeling Most holy and merciful Father: We confess to you and to one another, and to the whole communion of saints in heaven and on earth, that we have sinne...

illustration

The Segregated South: Separate and Unequal

Author

John M. Perkins

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 23:9, Leviticus 19:33-34 , Isaiah 1:17, Luke 10:25-37 , Galatians 3:28, Psalm 82:3-4

Desegregation was one of the big goals of the civil rights movement. “Separate but equal” in the South became “separate and unequal.” The disparities were in things as small as water fountains and as ...

illustration

Dying from the Unspoken War Back Home

Author

John M. Perkins

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 2:11-25 , Amos 5:21-24, Isaiah 1:16-17 , Luke 4:16-21 , Romans 12:17-21 , Psalm 34:18-19

I was sixteen when a white deputy sheriff shot and killed my twenty-five-year-old brother, Clyde, in New Hebron, Mississippi, where we had grown up. Clyde had returned home from fighting in World War ...

Quote

Author

Ursula K. Le Guin

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 12:1-2, Matthew 5:14-16, Micah 6:8, Isaiah 1:17, James 4:17

If your voice is heard by more people because you've earned some kind of name and fame, your silence on an issue of urgent moral importance is even more of a betrayal. Privilege is obligation.

illustration

One of the gravest dangers to the Christian faith

Author

Alan Paton

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 5:1-21, 1 Samuel 8:4-22, Isaiah 1:10-17 , Matthew 23:23-28 , Galatians 3:26-29, Psalm 146:3-9

One of the gravest dangers to the Christian faith is its wholesale appropriation of the larger culture. When this happens, the citizens of those places cannot recognize the difference between their cu...

illustration

Using Jesus as a Model when Negotiating during the Cold War

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 33:4, 2 Kings 5:1-15 , Isaiah 1:18, Matthew 9:10-13, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19, Psalm 133:1

Dag Hammarskjöld, a Swedish economist and diplomat deeply committed to his Christian faith, served as the Secretary-General of the United Nations during some of the most turbulent times of the Cold Wa...

liturgy

Holy and merciful God, we confess to

Author

Bud Thoreen

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 51:1-2, 1 John 1:9, James 5:16, Isaiah 1:18, Colossians 3:13, Ephesians 4:31-32

Holy and merciful God, we confess to you and to one another, and in the company of the communion of saints, that we have sinned by our own fault, in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and ...

liturgy

Lord Jesus Christ, you are quicker to

Author

Chip Hardwick

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 1:18, Romans 8:1, Psalm 103:12, Micah 7:18-19, Ephesians 1:7

Lord Jesus Christ, you are quicker to forgive us than we are to brings our sin before you. We worry that the sin we carry is too deep for you to pardon or too evil for you to bear. We forget that you ...

liturgy

Prayer of Adoration Lord – You are good

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 12:1-2, 1 John 1:9, Psalm 51:10-12, Isaiah 1:18, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Psalm 103:1-2

Prayer of Adoration Lord – You are good …and Your goodness knows no bounds. When we were lost, You sought us out, found us and brought us home. When we were alone, You came near to us, and You gave ...

illustration

Atonement

Author

Ian McEwan

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 1:7, Romans 5:8, Micah 6:8, Hebrews 9:22, Psalm 51:1-2, Isaiah 1:18

When something has gone wrong, justice needs to be done and seen to be done. Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement examines exactly this same dynamic. The central character, Bryony Tallis, makes a grave mista...

relationships and community on Stubbornness

illustration

liturgy

illustration

liturgy

liturgy

liturgy

illustration

liturgy

liturgy

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

liturgy

liturgy

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

liturgy

liturgy

liturgy

illustration

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Genesis

Exodus

Leviticus

Numbers

Deuteronomy

Joshua

Judges

Ruth

1 Samuel

2 Samuel

1 Kings

2 Kings

1 Chronicles

2 Chronicles

Ezra

Nehemiah

Esther

Job

Psalm

Proverbs

Ecclesiastes

Song of Solomon

Isaiah

Jeremiah

Lamentations

Ezekiel

Daniel

Hosea

Joel

Amos

Obadiah

Jonah